OLD DUTCH WINDMILL WITH CHANGEABLE COLORS AND FLASHER EFFECTS.
The design here submitted is one that will attract attention as far as it can be seen, and requires nothing practically of a special order, and is applicable to almost any kind of stock. The first proceeding naturally will be the frame for the mill house (see Fig. 2). For a design, say five and one-half feet high, let this be four feet high to top, eighteen inches square at the gables, two feet square at the base, made of stock say 1 × 3 inches, and strong enough to stand the weight and vibrations of the revolving wheel. About three feet from the floor put in two cross pieces for the bearings for the wheel. The frame can either be covered with painted canvas or filled in with boxes of shoes or corsets, bolts of ribbon, etc., or covered with white cloth pinned full of bunches of flowers or other millinery goods. The wheel (see Fig. 1) is made of two pieces of 1 × 3 wood, five feet long, crossed at right angles in the center, and be careful to have it securely fastened to a substantial hub, in case you cannot get the flange described further on.
The wings for the wheel can be made of lath frames, say eight inches wide at the top, six inches at the bottom, and twenty-two inches long, covered the same as you decide to cover the mill house, and provision made for the lamps projecting through when the lamp sockets are screwed to the 1 × 3-inch pieces behind. Next is the shaft, as shown in Fig. 3. Get a piece of gas pipe eight inches longer than your frame is square at the bearings, screw it securely into a 3-inch flange, which in turn is screwed to the center of the wheel and acts as a hub. Parallel with the shaft, in its center, fasten two strips of ¼-inch wood, opposite each other (see Fig. 4), and about one foot long. Next make nine rings of ¹⁄₁₆ × ½-inch brass, whose inside diameter will be such as to cause them to fit snugly over the wooden strips on the shaft, about one-quarter inch apart. Thus you will see the duty of the strips is to hold the rings away from the shaft, and allow the intervening space under the rings for drawing in the wires. To ring No. 9 connect a wire running to one side of each circuit on the wheel, and known as the return wire. (See Fig. 6.) Connect ring No. 8 to circuit No. 8 on the wheel, No. 7 ring to No. 7 circuit, etc. These wires must all be run under the rings, so as to leave their face unobstructed, and at the point of the shaft bearing they must run inside the shaft and out again at the flange. Attach a 5-inch pulley anywhere, put on a collar to prevent lateral motion, and the shaft is completed.
Next nail a 1 × 2-inch strip, covered with asbestos, across the frame (see Fig. 5), parallel with the shaft and one-half inch clearance from the rings. This is for a bridge to support the brushes, which project up and press on the rings to form a contact. Make the brushes of thin brass, three inches long, and set one opposite and in line with each ring, and screw to the bridge. Each brush will be known by the same number as its corresponding ring. Shaft brush No. 9 connects to the service main direct; shaft brush No. 8 connects to flasher brush No. 8; shaft brush No. 7 connects to flasher brush No. 7, and so on. Place your flasher in such position that you can belt direct from a 1¼-inch pulley on the countershaft of your flasher to the 5-inch pulley on the shaft of the windmill with a quarter-inch leather belt. Divide the flasher circumference into twelve parts. Arrange the lugs as shown in Fig. 7. Connect and start the motor, and the following will be produced:
1. Red center. 2. Add white to center. 3. Change center to yellow. 4. Add green to center. 5. Red border, yellow and red center. 6. Red border, red and white center. 7. Red border, green and red center. 8. Red border, green and white center. 9. Red and white border, green and white center. 10. Yellow and green border, green and red center. 11. Red and green border, green and white center. 12. Green and white border, green and red center.
